Mackay welcomes Scottish Veterans Fund

Renfrewshire North & West MSP Derek Mackay has welcomed the Scottish Veterans Fund.

The Scottish Veterans Fund will support Veterans and ex-service charities with £600,000 of funding over the next three years, including a three-year £240,000 contribution from Standard Life to support veterans employment.

The fund will continue to help one-year projects, but for the first time applicants will now also be able to bid for 2 or 3 year funding to enable more strategic projects to come forward.

The SNP MSP said:

“Veterans are an asset to our society and deserve the highest level of advice, support and care.

“However some veterans do face difficulties accessing services and the Scottish Government is committed to tackling this head on, ensuring that no member of the armed forces, service family member or veteran in Scotland faces unfair disadvantages.

“The Fund is now open to applicants. For the first time, applicants can also bid for two or three year funding to support more strategic projects.” 

Colonel Martin Gibson, Executive Chairman of Veterans Scotland, said:

“We welcome the continued support to ex-Service charities and other organisations from the Scottish Veterans Fund and we recognise the benefits that such grants can bring for individuals. The potential to have funding over a two to three year period means that a number of initiatives will be able to become well established and make a real difference to those, comparatively few, veterans who really need support.

“I anticipate many Service leavers finding meaningful and worthwhile employment as a result of the short to medium term initiatives that will come about as a result of this funding. In turn, they will bring their considerable skills and attributes into the work place in Scotland. We are grateful to the Scottish Government and to Standard Life for their generous contribution.”